IDC Research Types

Analyst

Analyst Profile

Provides complete background information on an IDC analyst. Each profile provides a biography, a notable quotation, a frequently asked question relevant to the particular analyst's focus, and a list of research authored by that analyst.

Team Profile

Lists the analyst members of a topical team. Outlines general areas of coverage and any specialties.

Briefs

Flash

Provides rapid IDC insight and analysis about a significant industry event or conference, merger or acquisition, product announcement, or other fast-breaking news affecting the IT market.

Forecast Update

Provides a short, quick look at an updated forecast and the changed assumptions behind the update. It updates a market forecast published in the same calendar year, identifies changed and key forecast assumptions, and highlights actions for participants to consider in light of the changes.

IDC Insight

Provides coverage and analysis of an industry event, new product or service, or a company announcement or development.

Update

Provides brief overview coverage of what is happening in a market.

Vendor Profiles

Provides a concise, hard-hitting profile of an emerging vendor. A profile will highlight new players and technologies and the potential paradigm shifts or disruptions a vendor represents.

Daily Graphics

Daily Graphic

Illustrates IDC's keen analysis of major market trends in downloadable PowerPoints. Available as a free download the day it appears, an IDC Daily Graphic provides valuable material for speeches and strategic planning.

Event Proceedings

Event Proceeding

Provides published slides, audio, and other materials from IDC and Insights Web conferences, briefings, forums, or other events.

Events

Conference

Delivers dependable, relevant, and high-impact data and insight to help organizations make sound business and technology decisions. eBusiness executives, IT professionals, IT suppliers, and services suppliers benefit from the strategic insight and networking opportunities IDC conferences offer. Generally, all presentation slides are available online, and for most conferences, streaming audio of key discussions is available as well.

Web Conference

Focuses on significant trends and paradigm shifts. Each Web conference will provide attendees with leading-edge market information that will enable them to make smart business decisions. For those unable to attend in person or those wishing to review the content presented, these synchronized multimedia presentations are available online.

IDC DecisionScapes

IDC FutureScape

Serves as a framework for IT/tech professionals' IT strategy and planning for the next one to three years. It lists IDC's top 10 worldwide technology trends for the coming one to three years in a given research area and includes related drivers, projected IT/business strategy impact, and guidance.

IDC MarketScape

Helps IT/tech professionals develop a short list of suitable suppliers when selecting a vendor. Provides an unbiased assessment of tech suppliers in terms of offerings, strategy, capabilities, and other important factors in a given technology area.

IDC MaturityScape

Describes five stages of "maturity" or capability for a particular technology area, helps IT/tech professionals understand where their organizations fit within those stages, and provides guidance on key components for planning successful improvements to a tech initiative.

IDC MaturityScape Benchmark

Helps IT/tech professionals to benchmark their maturity against peers, develop a business case for a tech initiative, and build consensus about where critical IT investments should be made. Presents quantitative research results that show the market distribution for a given tech initiative across the five stages of maturity presented in the related IDC MaturityScape. Shows the results and components of particularly successful initiatives.

IDC PeerScape

Gives IT/tech professionals insight into best practices (and practices to avoid) by providing specific use case examples implemented by peers. Identifies practices that have the most impact on the success of a tech or business initiative, and provides actionable guidance for each practice.

IDC PlanScape

Helps IT/tech professionals to justify and plan a business and/or technology investment or opportunity by exploring why, what, who, and how (these are also the main section headings). Presents key players, critical success factors, risks, and actions to consider for a designated technology and/or business management area.

IDC TechScape

Helps IT/tech professionals with developing IT strategic plans and evaluating emerging technologies in terms of their risk to the business. Shows the adoption curve and risk levels over time for a specific emerging technology. Sorts technologies into three "adoption model" categories (transformational, incremental, opportunistic) to help tech leaders determine the potential impact for their organization.

IDC Links

IDC Link

Provides timely context and insight around important market trends and events in a short opinion piece. IDC Links provide IDC's point of view on:

Financial announcements

Product announcements

Mergers and acquisitions or divestitures

Events

Response to news

Insights-only Research

Best Practices

Correlates the use of specific practices and superior performance as indicated by an analysis of the benchmarking database. Highlights any significant differences between industries. Conclusions provide a set of process priorities for improving a business case and advice on how to overcome change management issues.

Business Strategy

Helps buyers to assess their business strategies and/or associated business processes, especially as they relate to the use of technology.

Methods and Practices

Provides a step-by-step description of a method or methods that can be applied. As appropriate, the report may compare the benefits and drawbacks of several methods.

Perspective

Presents an article written by an Insights analyst on a topic of special interest to a target audience. This information has generally already appeared in an industry publication and is repackaged for display on the Insights Web site.

Vendor Assessment

Helps buyers select the right IT supplier. The report helps buyers understand the various providers of a technology by providing analysis on market landscape, vendor profiles, vendor market share, and vendor assessments.

Pivot Tables

Pivot Table

Presents an interactive spreadsheet tool for analyzing trends and activities in a specific market segment. These tables are available only through an annual subscription service.

IDC Presentation

IDC Survey

Presents a hypothesis about what is happening in the market backed by the results of a demand-side or supply-side survey. The focus is on interpreting and analyzing the survey results and providing a strong point of view along with actionable advice.

IDC Survey Spotlight

Answers a timely question and provides a strong opinion backed by IDC survey data. This is a quick nugget of information that is presented in two concise PowerPoint slides.

Insights Presentation

Provides an easy-to-use format to post on the Web presentations that were previously delivered at public forums (such as conferences and events) or for internal client meetings and client presentations. It may not come as part of a consulting/custom engagement.

Market Analysis Perspective

Delivers a concise current state view of a market and insight into the impact of future trends. Business executives, product managers, and MI/AR professionals can use this information when looking to understand buyers' perspectives and market impacts.

Press Releases

Press Release

Fact Sheet

Describes a research product. Usually details the major areas of coverage and deliverables, and outlines key questions and competitive market conditions that the research will address. Includes links to all published research for a research product.

Studies

Competitive Analysis

Provides a detailed accounting and review of a vendor's programs, processes, products, service, satisfaction, and/or strategy in a target market. This knowledge helps clients reduce their risk of losing market share or enhance their position over the competition.

Customer Needs and Strategies

Focuses on the important decisions that business and IT professionals make every day.

Industry Developments and Models

Provides a detailed assessment of a specific target market's expansion pattern. This analysis helps clients develop and deploy the right mix of value-add products, programs, or services to support their sales and/or partnering efforts.

Market Analysis

Provides an in-depth examination of the dynamics and future of a single market or a group of related markets. The Market Analysis is where we will typically present our forecasts and assumptions, using a key forecast assumptions table.

Market Forecast

Provides the future of a single market or a group of related markets. It presents a new or updated market forecast, including key drivers and assumptions used in the forecast.

Market Share

Provides data on market size, regional allocations, and platform splits as well as a summary of vendor shares for the most recently completed period (year, quarter).

Special Study

Provides a onetime study produced by a research group that is not published as a deliverable under a subscription service.

Survey

Provides a study and interpretation of the results of a demand- or supply-side survey.

Taxonomy

Highlights and emphasizes how IDC tracks the market while also making it easier for customers to find and identify IDC Taxonomy documents.

Technology Assessment

Provides an analysis of the intricacies of an emerging or established technology or the technologies contained within a specific product.

Vendor Needs and Strategies

Provides an in-depth analysis of a company, a small group of companies, a division of a company focused on a particular market, or a best practice that the company exemplifies.

This IDC Health Insights Pivot Table presents our best estimates and forecasts for the worldwide healthcare industry IT opportunity. This Pivot Table provides IT spending forecasts for the provider and payer markets by key subindustries. ...

This 2017 IDC Retail Insights ANZ Retail Overview report delivers a concise current state view of the Australia and New Zealand retail industry market trend and insight into the IT spending and ecommerce growth. Retail executives, IT managers, ...